Level Adjustment?

[Sponson]

Can someone explain to me level adjustment? I always thought that a level adjustment acted in place of a class level, so being a race with a +2 LA meant that if you made a level 4 character, you would have 2 levels in that race and 2 levels in that class.
We are planning to have a small level 1 kick in the door, and I was wondering about having a Goliath as a race with no class levels, just a dude with strength and simple weapon proficiency.
The issue is that I can't find a racial hit die, so I guess he has no hp? Or perhaps its just not allowed.

What are the entire intricacies of level adjustment, and what does it mean to "buy off"?

[Jeraa]

You must have at least one hit die, either from class or race. A goliath has no racial hit die, so must always have at least 1 class level. A goliath is a minimum of a 2nd level character.(1 class level, +1 level adjustment)

[Sponson]

You must have at least one hit die, either from class or race. A goliath has no racial hit die, so must always have at least 1 class level. A goliath is a minimum of a 2nd level character.(1 class level, +1 level adjustment)

So you could never play a goliath from level 1-20 in a regular campaign, right? You could only ever play it if you started character creation at level 2?

[XionUnborn01]

You are correct in that a character with +2 level adjustment and 2 class levels would be ECL 4, assuming there's no racial hit dice of course.

You wouldn't be able to play a Goliath at level 1 without some house ruling, dropping a few things to reduce the level adjustment to +0, because of the fact that they are always at least ECL 2, with their +1 LA the HD they gain from a class level.

Here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=glossary_dnd_leveladjustment&alpha=) is the online definition for level adjustment on the WOTC site, or else you can look in the MM1.

Unearthed Arcana brought in LA buyoff (page 18). It lets you spend XP once you reach a certain level so you can reduce your LA by 1, starting as early as class level 3 for +1 LA, and then getting higher from there for each additional starting LA. It's used because as you get higher in level, the abilities you gained from being a stronger race are generally less and less useful, so this gives players a way to get levels back in place of the adjustment.

Hope this helped.

[HunterColt22]

Simply put, having an la+x means you have that on top of what ever your class levels are, as you correctly deduced with the Goliath. However, there is a catch, with things such as the Goliath, you see no RHD or racial hit dice, which means, again as you stated no hp. what this translates to is that you can not start with this character if the campaign starts off at lvl 1. Instead the campaign must start at lvl 2, because you will have 1 class lvl and your LA of +1 making you effectively a lvl 2 character. It can be a bit confusing, but once you start thinking of it more as a building block rather than the whole set, it becomes easier.

Also buy off occurs at every 3 lvls if I am remember right? Someone more informed can do that, but essentially it allows you to essentially make your LA disappear if you will. Example, you have an LA+ 1 about to get lvl 4, so you have 2 lvl of a class about to get your third, and the +1 la you had due to your racial choice. By buying it off, instead of getting the next level in your class (lvl 4) you would spend the exp to buy off that LA and effectively become a lvl 3 creature while the rest of the party is at lvl 4. Thus, enabling you to make a full lvl 20 class character. That is explained very crudely but I do not have my books near me to help explain it better. This handbook is extremely helpful in doing so, read it, love it, and listen to his wisdom on the matter: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207928

[Uncle Pine]

So you could never play a goliath from level 1-20 in a regular campaign, right? You could only ever play it if you started character creation at level 2?

Exactly. Races with LA but no racial hit die can't be played from level one.
On the other hand, if you want to play a powerful race that has at least one racial hit die you can create a "savage progression" for that race, which lets you slowly develope your full racial potential. Savage Species has a lot of them, and even if it's 3.0 you can easily convert them or use them as guidelines.

[ZaSeroulIs]

Let say your party will start the campaign as ECL (Effective Class Level) 3.

Human Barbarian 3. This Character's level is 3. His ECL is 3

Goliath Barbarian 3. This Character's level is 3. However his ECL is 4, him being 1 ECL above others and thats not right.

Goliath Barbarian 2. This Character's level is 2. His ECL is 3 like the Human Barbarian above that has LA+0. This is correct.

So the Goliath Bararian 2 and Human Barbarian 3 are in the same party, they will get the same experience (directed by the ECL) BUT the Goliath can only progress up until Barbarian 19, however the Human can get up to Barbarian 20.

If I am wrong could please someone correct me? I am yet to see in-game or play a character with LA so this is what I understand.

[Flickerdart]

You can also use monster classes (if one exists) to play a race with LA from level 1. The Savage Progressions (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/sp) article has racial classes, and the book Savage Species has some more. Note that the two sets of racial classes have different rules - the SS classes must be taken in their entirety before you can take character levels (so at level 1 you wouldn't even get to pick a class), but the SP racial classes can be multiclasses out of whenever you feel like, you could take only the LA0 benefits of Feytouched or Tiefling or Aasimar and then never look back.

Be careful, though. While the system assumes that LA and class levels are equal in power, most of the time, having more character levels is much better than the benefits from a race with LA. As you gain more levels, this becomes more and more true - while at level 1, it might seem beneficial to have +4 or so damage from Goliath, at level 20, that +4 damage didn't scale, but everyone else in your party got their class capstone which is way better than +4 damage. This is why most games use Level Adjustment Buy-off (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm).

[Lanaya]

So you could never play a goliath from level 1-20 in a regular campaign, right? You could only ever play it if you started character creation at level 2?

Sadly, yes.

[Bakkan]

As you gain more levels, this becomes more and more true - while at level 1, it might seem beneficial to have +4 or so damage from Goliath, at level 20, that +4 damage didn't scale, but everyone else in your party got their class capstone which is way better than +4 damage.

Well, all but the rogue's.